Apparatus for supporting electrical conductors



L. J. COUND 3,108,154

APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS Oct, 22, 1963 Filed April23, 1962 M N m wm M e Y B N E R U R United States Patent 3,108,154APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS Laurence John Cound,Letchworth, England, assignor to International Computers and TabulatorsLimited Filed Apr. 23, 1962, Ser. No. 189,601 Claims priority,application Great Britain June 22, 1961 Claims. (Cl. 174-70) The presentinvention relates to apparatus for supporting electrical conductors.

Electrical conductors are frequently used, for example in communicationsor computing apparatus, to carry high frequency electrical signals. Inarrangements of this kind it is undesirable that the conductors bebunched together in a conventional cable form since this may give riseto excessive cross-talk bet-ween the conductors. On the other hand,screened wiring has the disadvantage that the capacitance between theconductors and earth may be excessively high. It has been *found thatair-spaced open wiring provides a satisfactory solution. It haspreviously been proposed to provide in-line feeders in which a number ofconductors are supported at constant lateral spacing within a ribbon ofinsulating material. However, in any run of such a feeder, the number ofconductors required may vary from point to point and it is obviouslyuneconomic to provide a feeder having the maximum number of conductorsthroughout the run when this maximum number may only be required for arelatively short distance.

It is an object of the present invention to provide improved apparatusfor supporting conductors.

According to the present invention apparatus for supporting electricalconductors includes a conductor supporting element comprising anelongated tape-like member of resilient material, having at least onelong edge formed to support an elongated conductor along its lengthparallel to and at a fixed distance from the longitudinal axis of thetape-like member, and further having means for engaging fixed supportingmeans by reason of its inherent resilience, said fixed supporting meansfollowing a predetermined path and the engaging means being positionedwith respect to the longitudinal axis of the tape-like member tomaintain a constant distance between said predetermined path and saidlongitudinal axis.

Apparatusembodying the present invention will now be described, by wayof example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which,

FIGURE 1 shows a tape-like conductor support,

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view of an arrangement for supporting aconductor,

FIGURES 3, 4 and 5 show other forms of tape-like conductor supports,

FIGURES 6 and 7 show tape-like supports for twin conductors,

FIGURES 8 and 9 show tape-like supports for a number of conductors, and

FIGURE 10 is a sectional view of apparatus for supporting a number ofconductors.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, an electrical conductor 1 is supported bymeans of :a tape-like member 2 of resilient insulating material. Themember 2 consists of a flat web 3 and a part 4 lying along one side andformed round the conductor 1. The latter part 4 may conveniently beformed round the conductor by an extrusion process. The web 3 is piercedat intervals by apertures 5 and the apertures are all arranged at afixed distance from the longitudinal axis of the member 2.

As shown in FIGURE 2, the member 2 may be supported by rigidly mountedposts 6, 7, the posts engaging the apertures 5. FIGURE 2 shows, insectional view, two examples of suitable mounting posts. The left-handpost 6 as shown in the drawing is a rod-like member, preferably ofsimilar material to the member 2. A number of projections 8 are providedat spaced intervals along the member 6 and a pair of oppositely facingprojections 8 provides a slot 9. The post 6 is mounted in a hole in asupporting plate 10', the post being advanced through the hole until thesupporting plate is engaged by one of the slots 9, the resilience of thematerial of which the post 6 is made allowing the projections 8 to bedeformed in order to permit the plate 10 to enter the slot 9 andthereafter to lock the post 6 into position. In a some-what similarmanner an aperture 5 is engaged with another of the slots 9 in the post6. Hence, the spacing between the support plate 10 and the conductor isdetermined by the spacing of the slots 9 on the post 6. It will beappreciated that a further conductor supporting tape 2 may be engagedwith another slot in the rod 6 and that a pair of conductors supportedin this way may be used to form an airspaced twin feeder.

It will be realised that the rods 6 may be produced in long lengths andcut off as necessary to any required length.

The right hand post 7 as shown in the drawing is of alternativeconstruction and is a rod having a similar number of spaced apart slots9. In this case, however, the rod may be of inflexible material securedto the support plate 10 by means of a screw 11. The web 3 is engaged bymeans of an aperture 5 with the post in a somewhat similar manner tothat described for the post 6, the resilience of the web 3 allowing theapertures to be deformed in order to permit the passage of the post andthereafter locking the web into the required position on the rod by theengagement of an aperture 5 with a groove 9.

It will be realised that the rods, such as 6 or 7, are spaced apart atintervals corresponding to the spacing of apertures 5 in the web 3 ofthe member 2 along the predetermined path or route to be followed by theconductor 1. Since the conductor is supported at a constant fixeddistance from the longitudinal axis of the member 2 and the path definedby the rods is also at a constant fixed distance from this axis, itfollows that the conductor is always spaced from the path by a fixeddistance.

The tape-like member .2 as shown in FIGURE 1 is formed round theconductor 1 but it will be appreciated that the member does not need tobe integral with the conductor. It is sufficient that one side of themember 2 is formed to support the conductor. For example, as shown inFIGURE 3, the member 2 may have an elongated aperture or open socket 12,formed integrally with the web, extending along one long edge andarranged so that a conductor 1 inserted therein is retained andsupported therein by reason of the inherent resilience of the material.For convenience similar parts in the figures are referenced with similarnumerals. It will be appreciated that the conductor 1 may be insulatedbefore being inserted into the aperture 12 or that the aperture 12 maybe so proportioned that it accommodates an uninsulated conductor.However, it is to be understood that the term conductor is used hereinand in the annexed claims to include an insulated or uninsulatedconductor and it will be appreciated that in all cases the conductor ismaintained at a constant distance from the longitudinal axis of thetape. The apertures 5 in the web may be wholly contained within the web3 as shown in FIGURE 3 or they may be, as shown in FIGURE 1, sopositioned that they extend to the edge of the tape.

It will be appreciated that the inner surface of the aperture 12 forms amating surface which is engageable with a complementary mating surface(in this case, the circumference) of the conductor. Hence, it followsthat these mating surfaces are interchangeable. For example,

' conductors.

FIGURE 4 shows an example of a conductor and support member which havetheir mating surfaces reversed with respect to the form of constructionshown in FIG- URE 3. The conductor 1 is insulated by a moulding 13having a cross-sectional profile including an aperture 14 which engagesa projection 15 carried by one long side of the tape-like member 2. Themember 2 has a web 3 'which is pierced by apertures 5 as in previouslydescribed embodiments.

FIGURE 5 shows an alternative form of the tape-like member 2. vIn thiscase the transverse apertures 5 are omitted from the web 3 of the member2 and, instead, a longitudinal aperture 16 is formed along the oppositeedge of the Web 3. The aperture 16 forms an open socket similar to thepreviously described aperture 12. As in the case of the apertures 5, theaperture 16 is at a fixed distance from the longitudinal axis of themember 2. In this case the member 2 is supported by a longitudinalsupport bar having a suitable profile to be engaged by the aperture 16,and the support bar then defines the predetermined path to be followedby the conductor. Thus, as before, a constant distance is maintainedbetween the path and the conductor.

A further modification to the members described with reference toFIGURES 1 and 2 is shown in FIGURE 6. In this case the member 2 has theusual web 3 carrying the apertures 5. The member 2 in this case supportstwo conductors 1, one along each longitudinal side. It will beapparentthat both conductors 1 are supported at a constant distance fromthe predetermined path defined by the supporting posts or rods.Moreover, the conductors are mutually spaced by a fixed distancedetermined by the width of the Web 3. Hence, this form of constructionconstitutes a twin feeder. The part of the web 3 carrying the aperture 5may be extended to one side of both conductors and this formofconstruction is shown in FIG- URE 7. It will also be appreciated that inthe form of construction shown in FIGURE 7 the transverse apertures 5may be omitted and a longitudinal aperture substituted along the freeedge of the web, similar tothe aperture 16 of FIGURE 5.

Using the twin feeder as shown in FIGURE 6, it will be appreciated thatthis feeder may be supported by a tapelike member 2 having an aperture16 along one edge for engagement with a support member and an aperturealong the other edge. This latter aperture then embraces one of theconductors of the twin feeder in the manner illustrated by the aperture12 of FIGURE 3. Using this form,

dioated in FIGURE 8 and this form of construction is particularlysuitable for suspending the feeder from a longitudinal rod which, aspreviously noted, then defines the predetermined path. As shown inFIGURE 8, the extreme left-hand twin feeder 17 is supported by a firsttape like member 2, an aperture 12 embracing one of the feeder Theaperture 16 then embraces one of the conductors of a second twin feeder18. Thus, this conductor of the feeder 18 serves as a support member forthe feeder 17. The opposite conductor of the twin feeder 18 is thensupported in turn by a second tape-like memher 2.

Hence, it will be obvious that an array of conductors in parallelformation may be built up in this manner and may include as manyconductors as are required, one of the outer feeders being supported bya tape-like member engaged with a fixed support'and each succeedingfeeder of the formation being supported in turn by the engagement of atape-like member with a preceding conductor of the formation. Thus theintermediate conductor-s engaged by tape-like members themselves definethe path to be followed by the succeeding conductors of the formation.The outer member 2 engaged with the fixed support may have a singlesupporting aperture 16 or it may be supported by rods passing'throughapertures 5 as previously described.

It will also be apparent that the members 2 shown in FIGURE -8 may beused merely for maintaining the twin feeders at constant lateralspacing, the resultant multiway feeder being supported by apertures 5 inthe webs of the members 2 or in the webs of the feeders 17 or 18, theapertures 5 beingengaged with support rods. In the latter case the webof the feeder supports each of the conductors in the feeder, and in bothcases the path to be followed is defined, as previously described, bythe disposition of the support rods.

A further variant of this multi-way'feeder construction is shown inFIGURE 9. In this case each conductor supporting member is somewhatsimilar to that shown in FIGURE 1 with the modification that alongitudinal aperture 16 replaces the transverse apertures 5 asdescribed with reference to FIGURE 5. Here again, the conductors arearranged in parallel formation, the aperture 16 of the outer supportmember 2 of the formation being engaged with a fixed support and theapertures 16 of each succeeding member 2 being engaged with .thepreceding conductor of the formation. ,Hence, as before, the path to befollowed is initially defined by the support member md each of theconductors in the formation, except the last, defines the path to befollowed by the succeeding conductors.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing arrangements for the formationof a multi-way feeder are particularly advantageous in that any numberof ways may be built up by using only a few extruded sections. In thecase of FIGURE 8 a twin feeder formation is used in conjunction with asupporting extrusion and in the case of FIG- URE 9 ony a singleconductor-carrying extrusion is used. These arrangements also have theadvantage that a feeder may enter or leave the assembly at any pointalong its route. It will also be appreciated that the conductors andsupporting members may be separate, as shown, for example in FIGURES 4and 5. In this case the shape of each supporting aperture 16 must besuch that it embraces the insulation 13 formed round the succeedingconductor. V

In a further variant, the insulation 13 applied to the conductor 1 has anumber of apertures 14 each arranged to mate with a projection 15 of asupporting tape 2. This arrangement is shown in FIGURE 10 where fourconductors 1 are arranged in quad formation. The entire formation isconveniently supported by posts 7 similar to those shown in FIGURE 2which engage apertures 5 in the webs 3 of the supporting tapes 2. Again,it will be seen that this formation can be extended by the addition offurther tapes and conductors to provide a multi-way formation and,again, only two extrusions are needed for this purpose. As previouslydescribed, the posts, such as 7, are arranged along the predeterminedpath to be followed by the conductors and the tape-like members serveboth for supporting the conductors and for maintaining a fixed spacingbetween them.

What is claimed is: 1. An arnangment for supporting electricalconductors including an elongated tape-like member of resilient materralhaving at least one long edge formed to support an elongated electricalconductor along its length parallel to and at a fixed distance from thelongitudinal axis of the member; a series of spaced apart aperturesformed along the length of the member; and a series of fixed groovedposts arranged to define a path to be followed by the member, said postsbeing spaced apart to correspond to the spacing of apertures in themember, and said apertures in the member being respectively engaged withthe grooves in the posts.

2. An arrangement for supporting an electrical conductor including anelongated member of resilient material having a central web portion ofsubstantially constant width, a'supporting portion along one long edgeof the web formed integrally therewith about a conductor and anintegrally formed longitudinal open socket along the .3 opposite longedge of the web; and a fixed rod-like member arranged along apredetermined path to be followed by the member, said socket beingengaged with said rod-like member.

3. An arrangement for supporting electrical conductors including anelongated member of resilient material having a Web portion ofsubstantially constant width, a supporting portion formed integrallywith the web about a conductor and extendin along at least one long edgeof the web portion; a series of spaced apart apertures formed along thelength of the web portion; and a series of fixed grooved posts arrangedto define a path to be followed by the member, said posts being spacedapart to correspond to the spacing of apertures in the member, and saidapertures in the member being respectively engaged with the grooves inthe posts.

4. An arrangement for supporting electrical conductors including anelongated member of resilient material having a web portion ofsubstantially constant width, a conductor supporting portion formedintegrally with the web and extending along at least one long edgethereof, said conductor supporting portion having a mating surface; atleast one elongated conductor having a complementary mating surface, theconductor being supported by said supporting portion by the engagementof said mating surfaces; a series of spaced apart apertures formed alongthe length of the web portion; and a series of fixed grooved postsarranged to define a path to be followed by the member, said posts beingspaced apart to correspond to the spacing of apertures in the member,and

said apertures in the member being respectively engaged with the groovesin the posts. i

5. An arrangement for supporting an array of electrical conductorsincluding a plurality of tape-like members of resilient material, eachmember having a Web portion of substantially constant Width andconductor engaging portions formed integrally with the Web and extendingalong both long edges thereof; a plurality of conductors each formed toengage with the conductor engaging portions of at least two tape-likemembers, the conductors of the array being supported in spaced apartparallel formation by engagement with conductor engaging portions ofsaid plurality tape like members; a series of spaced apart aperturesformed along the length of the Web portions of at least seleotedtones ofsaid tapelike members; and a series of fixed grooved posts arranged todefine a path to be followed by the array, said posts being spaced apartto correspond to the spacing of apertures in said selected members, andsaid apertures in the selected members being respectively engaged withthe grooves in the posts.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,433,346 Deakin Dec. 30, 1947 2,888,511 Guritz May 26, 1959 FOREIGNPATENTS r 633,894 Great Britain Dec. 30, '1949 314,763 Switzerland Aug.15, 1956 1,077,737 Germany Mar. 17, 1960

1. AN ARRANGEMENT FOR SUPPORTING ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS INCLUDING ANELONGATED TAPE-LIKE MEMBER OF RESILIENT MATERIAL HAVING AT LEAST ONELONG EDGE FORMED TO SUPPORT AN ELONGATED ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR ALONG ITSLENGTH PARALLEL TO AND AT A FIXED DISTANCE FROM THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OFTHE MEMBER; A SERIES OF SPACED APART APERTURES FORMED ALONG THE LENGTHOF THE MEMBER; AND A SERIES OF FIXED GROOVE POSTS ARRANGED TO DEFINE APATH TO BE FOLLOWED BY THE MEMBER, SAID POSTS BEING SPACED APART TOCORRESPOND TO THE SPACING OF APERTURES IN THE MEMBER, AND SAID APERTURESIN THE MEMBER BEING RESPECTIVELY ENGAGED WITH THE GROOVES IN THE POSTS.